


The ones that entertain and observe

by VerboseWordsmith



Category: Batgirl (Comics), DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Awesome Ladies Being Awesome, Canon Disabled Character, Case Fic, Circus, College, Female Friendship, Female Protagonist, Future Fic, Gen, Leaning on the Fourth Wall, Misses Clause Challenge, Undercover Mission
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-20
Updated: 2012-12-20
Packaged: 2017-11-21 20:09:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/601606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VerboseWordsmith/pseuds/VerboseWordsmith
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Running way to join the circus was never Stephanie's plan. Of course, a case involving LexCorp, a casino and the mob alters all of her midterm plans (binging on coffee, stressing out, the usual). Now she's teaming up with Nightwing to infiltrate the award-winning Cirque du Lune's nearby casino show in hopes of finding a paper trail for Proxy connecting it all and saving the day (again).</p>
            </blockquote>





	The ones that entertain and observe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dudski](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dudski/gifts).



> Paradoxically this was a joy (Steph!) and a pain in the ass (plot!) to write. Dudski, I hope you enjoy. Thanks to E and C for handholding. Steph's routine is inspired by [this video of Molly Saudek](http://youtu.be/1U8SyDqEoBE) and [this Sarah Schwarz video](http://youtu.be/H-ilLtXff8k)

Stephanie Brown was many things. College student (it still amazed her she managed to finish high school on time), a surprisingly good gymnast (she maintained that one or two universes over she won an Olympic medal in 2008), bff with Supergirl (Kara knew it was already plural, Steph kind of wanted to marry her for that), part of the ex-Robin club (founder and president, since none of the boys were enterprising enough to start it), a crazy good ping-pong player (she'd even been talked into co-founding the university ping-pong club), Batgirl (the fierce and fabulous avenger of the night according to all the cape bloggers), a mediocre hacker on a good day (Steph still thought Tron was a good metaphor for how computers worked), a philosophy major (except when it was legal studies), someone who teams up with Wonder Woman (okay, it was once, and it was with every other female hero Wonder Woman could get a hold of that day but still), a wrangler of ex-ninja assassins (she was pretty sure that was an actual marketable skill), an auxiliary member of the Teen Titans (turns out the teen hero club wasn't actually as cool as she'd thought it'd be). 

What Stephanie wasn't?

A circus performer.

Specifically, an aerialist specializing in silks.

Steph's shoulders ached, which was all the warning she had before her arm seized and she lost her balance, dropping out of a hold and twisting and tumbling down several feet of silk. It caught around her legs and hips, so at least her initial lessons stuck and she'd successfully managed to wrap the silks correctly and not die.

"This isn't working," Steph said from where she hung upside down, several feet above Dick's head. Dick heaved a sigh and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well, try again. You're almost there, we just need to get you good enough for a successful audition."

Steph slowly untangled herself from the silks, making sure she wouldn't just loosen the wrong twist and fall another ten feet. She wasn't in anything resembling a position where she could land it without injury. She kicked out and with only a few more assaults on her dignity, she managed to right herself.

"I'm not sure this is the best plan," Steph said. "Wouldn't it be easier to get one of us into the casino as a waiter or something?"

"Waiters are busy from when they clock in until they clock out and have little reason to visit when they're off work and limited access on top of it," Dick said. "We tried sending me in as a waiter or a caterer couple times when I was Robin and it never paid off. I did manage to rock the bow tie and apron look pretty well though," he said proudly, like that was fashion forward or something, "and I got some pretty great tips. I think it was my hair."

"Yeah, or your ass in tight pants," Steph said dryly. "But you actually think _this_ will work?" Steph asked. "We're investing so much time I don't have into this, I can't even get through a routine once, and you're expecting me to go in and wow the company manager at the Cirque de Lune in like a week and get a gig and get us an all-access pass to the casino?"

"Pretty much," Dick said with a grin. He tugged on the silks and Steph had to lean back to counterbalance and keep from falling. "You're the Girl Wonder, you can do this. Come back down and we'll try it again."

***

Steph had a standing study date with Wendy in one of the cafes near the main campus library. Steph had started college knowing she was going to have to rigorously schedule homework time as long as she was still running around as Spoiler and then Batgirl happened. The flex time she'd attempted to build into her schedule between classes, work-study and homework so she could hang out with the new friends she was sure she'd make had all been eaten up with Batgirl. She'd balanced it all pretty well, considering, during freshman year but well, freshman year. Things got harder and so did Steph's schedule. Contrary to what Barbara and anyone else who knew Batgirl and Proxy thought, it was actually Wendy who'd needed help with a class (Ethics and Law, which Steph was kind of an expert on), which led to regular study sessions and a weekly study date in Wendy's favorite cafe. Team Batgirl ran a lot better with highly structured academics and an even more carefully scheduled "social life." Of course, at this point, Team Batgirl's social life pretty much was just Team Batgirl, with occasional superhero teamups (and one major campus event a semester because Wendy refused to skip Halloween or Drag Ball and Steph couldn't blame her, they were kind of awesome).

"Okay seriously, how do you always beat me here?" Steph demanded. "You have a class literally on the other side of campus, can you teleport or something now? Are you bribing Kara with sexual favors to fly you over here just so you can beat me? Tell me your secret Wendy Harris." Wendy had, somehow, not only beat Steph to their table but also managed to get her laptop set up and her class binders out, she even had her lunch half-eaten. It was like she'd been there for _hours_. Steph just stared and then started unpacking her bag.

"I'm sick," Wendy and then gave the fakest cough ever. "Deathly ill. Can't make it to class, oh no. I'll e-mail you my lab report professor and see you next week!"

"You're shameless," Steph said admiringly. "And your professor just went for that? Did you just send him an e-mail because you felt like skipping today?"

Wendy waved a hand, "Sort of. Yes, I e-mailed, that was a tip from Babs actually because no one can call you out for faking sick or just cutting because you totally let them know ahead of time. But sadly, not because I felt like skipping. Well, I did, but I also got e-mail from Babs about the big project. Bruce and a little red bird got a lead in Metropolis, something's not right with the finances-"

"We already knew that," Steph said irritably. Wendy was being sort of subtle about the case so Steph struggled for a second to come up with a good substitution for "one of Luthor's shell companies that's doing something with a shady lab and metagenes" before going with a fake student group. "His…club budgets…and everything _always_ have a bunch of exciting things hidden in them-"

"No, I mean we got something _concrete,_ " Wendy said emphatically. "Obviously-" she nodded slightly to the wannabe author two tables over muttering about story structure and the mother telling her daughter to settle down ("No Nell, you can't have a Batgirl special, you're too young for coffee and that much would probably give you a heart attack!") "not something I want to go into a ton of detail about right now but. There's a deposit from an account connected to one of Helena's "friends"- _laundry_ or something. It's a suspicious "purchase order" and Barbara and everyone are investigating it."

"Ah," Steph said. A concrete mob connection was something. Nothing that would hold up in a court, not yet at least, considering most Gotham families ran pretty sophisticated outfits now and _someone_ definitely owned a chunk of the Gotham PD's white collar unit. But it was a start. Money laundering charges would stick for _someone_ and any wrenches they could throw into the works would help. Steph almost felt bad for whoever the bastards were, considering they'd just rocketed up to the top of Oracle's list and were about to get a personal visit from Huntress. "I take it we're flying solo again?"

"Oh yeah," Wendy said. "Barbara's busy for however long this takes so it's up to you and me to follow up on the casino and circus end." Wendy handed her a flash drive and thick binder with color coordinated tabs "Start reading, you need to know who all fifty key employees are and as many others as possible and I don't have time to put together a powerpoint for you."

"This was supposed to be a normal study date," Steph said weakly. She opened the binder and saw it was full of resumes and employment contracts. "I have a paper due next week," Steph said pathetically.

***

Steph trudged through the slush outside Kane Hall and tried very hard not to think about how the icy mess was soaking her jeans and her long bus ride with bad heating. She ducked around milling students smoking before class and glared at one who wouldn't move from in front of the approximately point-seventeen-and-three-fifths way too small section of actually clear stairs.

"No smoking within twenty feet of an entrance my ass," Steph muttered as she gripped the railing tightly and prayed she wouldn't actually fall on her butt. Again. Everything hurt, she had a paper due in four days and she still had to bus it to Dick's apartment and his circus of horrors for more training. And he'd be there and just grin at her and get excited about teaching her new and painful ways to kill her shoulders and tell her more stories about growing up in the circus. Steph liked being in good enough with the rest of the Bat colony that they'd give her a big assignment like this and she definitely liked it when they took a personal interest in her and training her. She even liked spending time with DIck when he wasn't being a dickbag and all I am the night, fear me for I have the pointy ears of justice and make all the rules. He was more fun than a certain ex-boyfriend wonder and Steph was marginally less likely to get into a slap fight with him than the current Robin.

Steph checked her watch. She had about ten minutes until her bus, which was probably enough time to grab coffee from the kiosk in the old life sciences building. She weighed the pros and cons against her bank account and the possibility of missing her bus. On one hand, she'd have no way to get to Dick's apartment but there'd be coffee and reasonably comfy benches where she could work on a paper until her regular bus home next came in. On the other, well. Steph failed to see the bad with her first plan other than riding even closer to the red in her bank account and payday was in two days. Decision made, Steph pulled out her phone and scrolled for Discowing in her contacts, hoping she'd get voicemail.  
  
"Hey, Steph? What's up?"

"Dra-I mean, Dick. Hey. It's Steph, obviously. My class got out late and I just missed my bus," she said, crossing her fingers behind her back. It was practically true. It happened on Tuesday, at least. "I can't make it out to your place for practice. Can we reschedule?"

"Where are you on campus?" he asked. "I can pick you up."

"Uh. I can be near the bus stop by the gallery?" Steph said reluctantly. "In a few minutes. So-"

"I'll be there in twenty," Dick said. "We'll get take out and run through your routine, this'll be faster, actually. Maybe I should pick you up every day, we'll get more practice time in and you'll be closer to downtown for patrol."

"...awesome," she said faintly. "I'll see you in a few." She ended the call and just looked at the phone for a few seconds before putting it away. "That was the opposite of what I wanted," she told the shivering freshman waiting for a bus.

"Whatever, you know when the next bus to Noho is?" he asked. 

"Check the schedule," Steph said irritably. "it's right there and I have to prepare to meet my doom."

***

Steph fell and ended up upside down again, hanging from where she'd looped the silk around her leg. It was kind of like dangling from one of the harnesses she'd used when she was learning a new trick in gymnastics, except less cool because she wasn't actually doing fun flippy, twisty things before falling. With a dramatic sigh, Steph dropped her arms and let her fingers rest on the floor. She glared up at her nemesis. Thirty feet of brilliant red silk, though she was only using about half thanks to the combination of the ceiling height in Dick's apartment and Steph's level of skill (when she'd asked why they weren't in his top secret basement gym Dick had just looked shifty and mumbled something about Damian. Steph didn't ask). Learning how to set up the silks had been easy, the rigging wasn't actually that much more complicated than what they used to tie static lines for planned BASE jumps or if they were low on batarangs for grapples (Steph was pretty sure she might actually be the only one who ever ran into the problem but whatever. She was good at improvising and had tended to stick to standard routes in her Spoiler days). The rigging had only taken a few hours to learn and the principles behind wrapping the silk to stop falls was easy, Steph had figured out how to do something similar with her grapple lines once she had the kind of boots that could stand up to her wrapping slack line around her calf to take some of her weight (and the weight of anything she was carrying) while swinging.

"What am I doing wrong?" she said. "I can't figure out what I'm doing that's so different from you that I keep falling on my ass."

Dick's feet appeared and he reached down to grab her hand, pulling her upright. "I'm not really sure," he said. Steph steadied herself against him and Dick's hands automatically came to her hips to help support her weight. "You're going into the pose correctly, it's got to be how you're creating and wrapping the slack before your drops. Come back down to my height and we'll go over it again."

"This is like the most extreme two steps forward one step back ever," Steph grumbled as she finished dropping down to the practice mats.

"Really?" Dick said with a smile. "I think it's more like real-life platform gaming. You have to keep going up and down to accomplish your goals and sometimes you just fall off and have to start over."

"You've been hanging out with your brothers too much if you're making gamer metaphors," Steph said. She took a centering breath and rolled her shoulders, feeling the extra strain. Grapple guns were cool and a surprisingly efficient way to get around Gotham (well, assuming they were combined with fearlessness and the kind of parkour that free running fanboys drooled over on Youtube—Steph was extremely proud for having a couple of clips that rated as highly as Nightwing and even one that had more likes than Robin) but they were _difficult_. Tricky physics and mechanical quirks aside, the upper body strength they required was ridiculous. Adding more extracurriculars to her already physically demanding "extracurriculars" was killing her shoulders and arms. Steph eyed her enemy and wondered if she could borrow one of Dick's bikes for patrol. With another deep breath Steph jumped up, grasping silks and pulled herself up enough to create a toe grip and start shimmying up.

"Show's gotta go on after all," she muttered. "Even with a sadistic taskmaster and-"

"Did you actually want me to hear that or are you accidentally external monologuing again?"

"...Shut up Dick," Steph said loudly. He just laughed and Steph hid a smile in her silks as she crossed them behind her back in preparation for setting up the drop.

***

Patrol was excruciating two nights later. Steph was about twenty hours into what has shaping up to be a four day all-nighter. All-dayer? Day and nighter? Barbara had sent Wendy a few names to monitor and Steph had gotten stuck with one of the Wild Card Casino's accounting people. She never got the cool jobs, at least Nightwing and Robin had pulled _interesting_ casino employees. Stupid secretly evil casino (or possibly Cirque du Lune but probably casino) person, embezzling wasn't cool and why use the cash to fund a company called GeneCo? If a company is calling itself GeneCo and doing something with synthesizing the metagene for "personalized gene therapy" they were clearly up to evil, that was code for designer superpower drugs. Steph was pretty sure nothing good could actually come from easily accessible designer superpowers even though officially it was a health thing. Sure, there were plenty of legit reasons to develop metagene therapy (Steph wouldn't mind getting a hold of a healing factor in pill form herself) and she could sort of see slipping cash to a company developing metagene therapy if there was a sick family member or something but if half a dozen of the world's best detectives couldn't find a casino or Cirque du Lune employee desperate enough to try that, well. And then there was the LexCorp connection.

"Nothing good comes from LexCorp," Steph said. "Except Superboy, but he was a douchebag so maybe he isn't the exception. Stupid LexCorp."

"Your comm's on," Proxy said in Steph's ear. "You weren't joking about your missing brain-to-mouth filter."

"Nope," Steph said. "I say what I want because I'm the heroine of my own story and also I didn't really have anyone to talk to when I was little so it's a habit which I probably shouldn't have said because that's maybe a little too personal and kind of sad and I am not about the sadness. I am the happy, hopeful one. I function as the light to Batman and Robin's darkness, I am in fact a foil and-"

"Your lit paper is kicking your ass, isn't it?" Proxy said. She sounded like she was trying not to laugh.

"It's the worst, I'm never going to write a paper about postmodernism and music videos and Lady Gaga ever again. Especially not when I'm working a big case. Even if right now it's the most boring case since the thing with the forged bank bonds." Steph adjusted her cape and peered through her binoculars again. Still nothing. "Accountants are really boring, Proxy. So boring. She isn't doing anything except marathoning that stupid vampire journal show and I can only make up so much dialogue. Caroline and Edward are in love, except oh noes, Edward's evil brother Robin is evil and having angsty evil feels, meanwhile not-Willow is making up some kind of spell which is obviously going to backfire at prom. Ugh. Why can't she go meet with someone from the mob?"

There was silence on the comm and Steph wondered if Proxy left her. "Proxy, don't leave me alone, I can't handle another stakeout in silence, you have to talk to me. It's for great justice!"

"Your brain is like the _internet_ ," Proxy said wonderingly. "You're not as bad as the poli-sci hottie who works at that diner but jeez Batgirl. And did you just rename Damon because his name sounds like Robin's real name?"

"You have no proof," Steph said. "But I'm just saying, evil brother! And he's a biter. Sounds like an angry little boy we know and…know. We'll leave it at that." Proxy laughed and Steph heard something crinkle. "You have snacks, don't you? I hate you, you're O's favorite in class and you get to stay inside where it's warm and you have snacks. Why can't I have snacks? They can be Bat Snacks, like Scooby Snacks, only with protein and Bats-"

"They actually make Bat Snacks," Proxy interrupted. "They're weird little fruit gummy things and they're shaped like yellow and black bats. They kind of suck. Super Snacks are the good ones, they're little cookies stamped with everyone's symbols and the Bat ones are chocolate and probably made of crack because my roommate and I seriously bought like a case of them and ended up fighting over who got the last three bats because they're that-"

"Oh hey movement!" Steph said. She adjusted her binoculars again and watched as the very shady looking dude approaching her accountant's apartment knocked on the door. She focused on his hand and saw an over-sized ring and expensive looking fake Rolex watch. There was a possibility this was just some guy with bad taste in accessories (including a fairly obvious shoulder holster) in a mediocre suit but Ms. Accountant's expression when she opened the door cinched it. "Got a suspicious guy, probably a solider from whatever family's mixed in this mess, I'm going in for a closer look."

"Try and get his face," Proxy said, typing quickly in the background. "Tattoos, did you see his car? See if you can spook him and get the plates, you can pay a visit later-"

"On it," Steph said, shooting a line across the street.

***

Murphy's Law of the cape community went something like this: everything will go wrong spectacularly, massive property destruction will ensue, the bad guy will win, the government cracks down on vigilante activity and the universe comes one step closer to annihilation. Possibly that was Finagle's Law by way of O'Toole's Corollary and some good old fashioned Bat-Cynicism. The situation with the mobster, the accountant and Batgirl wasn't quite on that level but Steph was pretty sure she was one profession and bad joke about a bar away from step two of Murphy's twelve step program of-

"Hey Proxy, how do I connect a twelve-step metaphor to fake laws of the universe?"

"No talking, only hacking," Proxy said. "Take a left and cut through the parking garage, you should come out just ahead of Mr. Mob and his lovely accomplice."

"Gotcha," Steph said. She kicked the bike up a gear and wove through the evening traffic, focusing on the parking garage gate. She leaned into the turn, smiled at the parking attendant and hoped the bar would raise quickly enough because crashing was the last thing she needed. Steph ducked down as much as she could and just barely cleared the entire gate structure, banking left and twisting her way through the garage, looking for her exit. 

"No second entrance!" she yelled over the comm. "I'm too fast to break and almost on level two!"

"Crap, okay. Okay, you're going to have to channel your inner stunt driver and ride off the edge of the second-"

"Railing in the w-" Steph said with forced calm and then the solution came to her before she should finish the thought. She kept her speed steady and thanked whoever watched out for heroes that she didn't run into anyone actually driving in the garage. If she was very lucky the roof would be mostly empty because of the snow, which would give her time and space. Far, far too quickly Steph was on the second to last level of the garage and pulling out her grapple gun. The minute she cleared the railing around the ramp and didn't see any cars in her way, Steph shot off the gun, aiming for closest building. She felt the line catch and triggered the ratchet system, pulling her up and safely out of what was very shortly going to be a fiery wreck. Steph clung to the line and finally registered Proxy's voice.

"-talk to me, Batgirl. BG status, Steph are you okay? Steph!"

"I'm okay!" she said. "Hope the Batgirl budget can cover a new bike or Batman Inc has a grant process or something because the Ducati is dead."

Wendy let out a deep breath in her ear. "But you're good?"

"Yeah, riding an adrenaline high. Let's not do that again. Where's our mob goon and the accountant?"

"Funnily enough they're distracted by the mysterious bike falling from the roof of a parking garage downtown," Oracle's voice cut into their channel. "What the hell are you two doing?"

"Hey Oracle," Steph said manically, still shaking and terrified and elated about her latest near-death experience. "We're following a lead and continuing our investigation of the Case of the Mysteriously Embezzled Cash Funding Lex Luthor's Latest Plot To Get Superpowers! Just like you and bossman told us to do. Did you miss us or did the Birds hit a dead end?"

"This is why I don't let you title things," Proxy said. "You actually try to come up with the most ridiculous, stupidly long names and I can _hear_ the capitals."

"Children," Oracle said. "I'm glad you're still getting along but can we focus and maybe cause a little bit less damage?"

Steph ignored Barbara and Wendy's rapid fire planning. They'd come up with something to salvage the situation, meanwhile she had to figure out how to get to a safe spot. Steph's grapple only had a short line for roof hopping in it and she hadn't made a clean shot to any sort of balcony or part of a roof so at the moment, she was anchored about halfway up a building with a rope that wasn't long enough to get within safe jump distance onto concrete. Her only options were to go up or down, but she didn't have enough of an angle to make a shot or enough space and time to shoot off another line if she slid to the end of her rope once she factored in gravity. Steph quickly wrapped some of the slack line around her leg in an attempt at something Dick had taught her on the aerial silks. She'd feel a lot studier with a second line, but she's also feel more comfortable on a rooftop or the ground. Beggars and choosers, she needed to work with what she had.

"Batgirl are you even listening?" Oracle asked.

"No," she said honestly. "I'm…not stuck, exactly. But it's going to be a few minutes before I can pursue."

"How stuck?" Proxy asked. "Do we need to send someone else after our mobster?"

"I'm sending Robin in pursuit," Oracle said. "Nightwing's heading towards you Batgirl, hang on if you can't get out of that."

"I can hear you laughing," Steph accused. "This isn't funny, it's Proxy's reliance on Yahoo's directions that got me here. Totally her fault."

"Hey, don't blame me girl blunder," Proxy said. "I told you not to rush into the apartment and spook our suspects-"

"No, you told me spook him so we could get his car plates, I was there, it's in the comm logs, pretty sure this is all your handiwork."

"I wanted plates so we could send someone in to case his house! Not a cross-city car chase, that's all you BG!" Proxy sounded defensive and ruefully, Steph remembered that she was still finding her place in the Batfam and was probably extra sensitive to failure, real or not. Steph could relate. 

"Squabble later," Oracle ordered. "As hilarious as your banter isn't, we've got work to do."

"I'll just….hang out here then," Steph said.

"You can be a new motivational poster," Proxy said gleefully. "Keep hanging on with Batgirl, maybe the royalties can pay for your new bike."

"Not funny," Steph said. "Not funny at all, I am not a kitten falling off a tree branch, oh my god why would you say that?"

"No, actually it's kind of funny," Oracle said and Steph could hear the grin. "You're doing a remarkably good impression of a kitten stuck in a tree. Get yourself down if you can and regroup with Nightwing regardless, you're going home and getting some sleep, You're not on top of your game right now. I'm giving you an extension on your midterm projects, this case is too time-sensitive to keep juggling everything. We need to focus on catching up with the bad guys because right now this is the closest we've gotten to a solid tie between Luthor and whoever's pulling the strings at the casino."

"Fine," Steph said. "Batgirl out." She turned the comm off and focused on getting down (or up) because this was way too humiliating and Steph was pretty sure she'd rather fall and break a bunch of bones than let Dick rescue her or call Kara for help. "I am not a kitten stuck in a tree," she muttered. "I am a highly trained vigilante with a grappling-hook gun, a utility belt full of stuff, extra jump lines and unconventional problem solving skills. I can rescue myself."

***

Steph was a doer, a go-getter, a problem-solver and a creative thinker with vision and discipline (her resume said that, so obviously it was true). She had hidden depths, like an extensive knowledge of practical and applied crazy physics (that was the official term and sadly her high school physics teacher hadn't accepted that in lieu of missing homework). Right now Steph's special skills were failing her spectacularly (except for her awesome alliteration abilities). She was stuck in the one awkward spot on the building where the nearest windows were about ten feet away and her line's anchor wasn't as study as she'd like, which meant speed was pretty important here and a lot of her best options (zip line being first among them) kind of _weren't_. Steph was pretty sure her best bet was going to involve some of Dick's circus tricks to get herself perpendicular to the wall and a partially-blind shot to get a line higher and anchored securely so she'd get the speed and trajectory needed to swing safely to another building. Plan settled on, Steph carefully started rearranging her slack line to support herself while she rummaged through her utility belt to get a couple hundred feet of coiled BatTech™ jumpline to thread through her finicky grapple gun (Steph had once compared the process to threading a sewing machine and received a blank look from Bruce, which was typical).

Of course, then Steph's bad luck and her nemesis, gravity, struck again.

"Seriously?" she asked the universe and watched her utility belt fall. The universe didn't reply and Steph assessed the situation again. She was somewhere around the thirtieth floor of the third-tallest building in Gotham, with a poorly-anchored line which trailed off around the fifth story and she had a grappling-hook gun with about five hundred feet of de-cel line and there were four lanes of traffic, a median and a six story parking garage between her current perch and the building across the street. That…wasn't going to work. There was considerably less vertical distance between her and the mid-rise apartment at the start of the next block, but its roof was roughly even with her and again, velocity versus height verses trajectory verses how much her upper body was already killing her from patrol and circus training verses lack of sleep. Steph eyed the apartment roof. If she was higher up it'd be no problem or if she was on the ground she could run it in like two seconds— _running_. Maybe she couldn't roof hop or zip line, but she could _walk_ the distance and calling for some Super assistance wouldn't be as crushingly humiliating if she fell from a tightrope instead of needing rescuing from the side of a building.

Decision made, Steph tied her lines together and aimed the grapple for the apartment rooftop. Perfect shot and with some careful maneuvering Steph finished securing her lines and with some wriggling, untangled herself from her support and hesitatingly pulled herself up, swinging out and around until she was sitting on the line.

"Okay Steph," she told herself cheerily. "This is just like uneven bar work. Or the beam. You were an awesome beamer not too many years ago, fire escapes and railings are my playground, we can totally walk this line. And I'm not putting any more strain on the anchor than I would be hanging from it, there aren't going to be any sudden drops, no extra momentum from swinging, no shocks so it's going to _stay_ and I will walk over there and laugh at how nervous I was and it's going to be a great story to tell Wendy and Babs. Okay. Here we go."

Steph took a deep, centering breath and visualized how she'd rise and complete the walk. She thought about her gymnastics classes when she was younger, the first time she mastered an advanced trick on the beam, what it felt like to dance and defy gravity on four inches of wood and the first time she'd won a medal for balance beam. She thought about standing on skinny metal bars on her elementary school's playground, walking on railings, playing rooftop tag with Cass and surprising the other girl by fearlessly jumping up on a narrow fence and following. With another inhale, Steph shifted her weight to one leg, steadying herself with her hands and getting one foot under her on the line. Another breath and she carefully, gracefully extended her other leg ahead of her, slowly placing weight on it once she'd made contact with the line. A few minute shifts later, the leg supporting most of her weight was fully facing forward and she threw an arm out to counterbalance. She could rise easily from this kind of crouch, her weight was distributed as well as it could be and fear wouldn't ever keep her back again. Smoothly, Steph shifted and stood, arms windmilling to help maintain balance while she got used to the line. Vertigo wanted to kick in and Steph ruthlessly squashed it down. She didn't have time for it, she had about five beam lengths to walk.

The second and third steps were harder than the first, figuring out how to work with her boot tread and the thin line, making sure she wasn't tilting too much in one direction or another, but soon enough Steph figured out _a_ rhythm to it, if not the best one. She was careful but didn't inch her way across once she'd more or less figured out how to move forward. In her experience that just led to making more mistakes and throwing her balance off. She also didn't have the time. Steph could swear she felt the line give slightly but that was probably all in her head and the slight wind. Still. Probably not a good idea to chance it. Steph walked on.

***

Nightwing showed up when Steph was about ten feet from the roof. "Need a hand?" he asked and Steph scowled at him.

"Shut up, you're distracting," she told him.

"I get that a lot," he said with a bright smile. "You didn't answer my question though."

"Distracting," Steph said again. She stopped walking, confident enough that her anchors would hold a little longer. For once quipping was actually going to be the smarter, safer choice and Steph was looking forward to telling someone that. She still had her arms out, shifting as needed to work with the slight sway from the wind and her own body. "You can't actually fly and as you can see, I resorted to a tightrope because of the distinct lack of tall things within like two hundred feet of me. How exactly are you supposed to give me a hand?"

"I'm still working that one out," Dick said easily. "But we'll get there eventually."

"Or I can finish walking to the roof," Steph said brightly. "Seeing as I've already walked this far by myself, there's an audience and everything, probably video up on Youtube already. Batgirl's Death-Defying Walk Across Traffic 300 Feet In The Air or something."

"You know, my family once worked with someone who did a crazy walk like this to drum up publicity for the circus. I don't think it was this high, but it was pretty cool," Dick said. "Not quite as crazy as this, though. You've definitely just added _something_ to the legend of the Dark Knight and his, uh, Round Table? We'll go with round table."

"That might be tonight's worst metaphor, Bossbat is not King Arthur!" Steph said. 

"But you won't deny that we're his knights?" Dick asked.

"Eh," she said and didn't shrug because balancing was hard. "Are you done talking at me so I can get to solid ground?"

Dick gestured for her to continue on and Steph took another step. He didn't say anything, but he was watching her closely, with a hand near his grapple just in case. It was reassuring to be so close to safety and to have someone right there looking out for her. Steph made it to the edge of the roof without incident and Dick was there with an arm out to steady her. She gave him most of her weight so she could more easily move from line to ledge, navigating around the anchor and different heights and textures. Dick just picked her up and placed her on the roof and Steph leaned on him shamelessly.

"Oh thank god, solid ground," she said with a slightly hysterical laugh. Dick let her cling to him and managed to get something like a hug in.

"I'm glad you're okay. O gave me a very brief overview. This hasn't been your best night, has it?"

"Not my worst one either," Steph said ruefully. "Not by a long shot. We confirmed a connection between the casino and the mob, so that's the embezzlement and money laundering just about wrapped up. Now it's up to tying Luthor's company and GeneCo to the dirty money. Wasn't quite how we planned to get that evidence but hey, at least I didn't die! And I used some circus skills like you told me to. And I learned a new thing! I've actually got the skills for this tightrope thing, so you know. Could have been worse. I'd just rather experiment with new circus skills a lot closer to the ground, you know? There's jumping in headfirst and then there's this."

"Well, let's get you home. You're off the clock tonight but that just means more time for training tomorrow. I want to take your act up another ten feet, because obviously you can handle the height." Dick said teasingly. "And it might make a diff-"

"Nope," Steph said, realizing what she'd just rambled about and making a sudden decision. "Not happening. I suck at silks and even with O putting school stuff on hold for me I don't have the time to magically get good at them in time for the Cirque audition. We're switching my act."

"We don't have _time_ ," Dick said and he looked a little pissed about it. "You can't flake out on us about this, you're the only one with anything close to the right skills for this and we've spent a month working with silks-"

"Yeah a month where I kept having shoulder issues and screwing up drops," she said irritably. "I'm better than I was but nowhere near professional. But I just walked like seventy feet on an absurdly thin line stupidly high in the air, which is something professional tightrope walkers you've _met_ won't even do. I medaled on the balance beam for years. I can do this," Steph said fervently. "I can, and if I do this instead of silks I will get hired by the Cirque du Lune, you know I will. I am _not_ going to let this case fall apart because we can't get extended access to the casino's back offices." DIck didn't say anything for a moment and Steph didn't care. She didn't need his approval for this because it was her case as much as it was anyone else's and Steph knew what she was capable of better than anyone.

"You're right," he said finally. "We'll look up how to rig a tightwire first thing tomorrow."

"Make sure your balance beam is clear," Steph said. "With some practice and a low enough rope I can probably pull off a few beam skills and some crowd-pleasing uneven bar moves."

***

Getting more than four hours of sleep was great and day three of her reprieve from midterm hell was even more awesome. Steph had no idea what kind of strings Barbara had pulled to make that happen, but it was just another piece of evidence Steph was collecting that proved Babs was developing a plan to take over the world. Steph wasn't really against that plan, all signs pointed towards Barbara being a really good dictator and Steph was clearly already part of the inner circle that would benefit the most from her rule. She was in a good enough mood despite the early hour that Steph got off a stop early to pick up bagels and coffee before crashing into Dick's apartment (payday had been surprisingly great yesterday, probably because Wendy had made a Hang In There Batgirl poster and graciously shared the profits). One order to go and two blocks later, Steph was at Dick's building and with a little bit of juggling she managed to get inside and hit the intercom.

"Dick I have food. Let me up."

"Is there coffee?" he asked.

"You really had to ask?" she said with grin. "So much coffee. And I had an idea for including some dance elements in my act, so let me up already."

Dick buzzed her in and Steph smiled sweetly at one of his few neighbors as she passed him by. Dick owned the whole building, of course, but the first three floors were rented out like a normal complex and there were a few buffer floors between Dick's neighbors and his training space. Steph liked how Dick's base was set up but if Barbara's rants about security were anything to go by, she was probably the only person other than Dick who liked it. She was people person, after all. When she got to Dick's door she looked from her full hands to the doorbell and proceeded to kick at the door until he opened it.

"I would have actually heard the bell this time," he said. "You didn't have to kick the door down."

"I only have two hands," she told him. "Here, take your coffee. It has caramel and mocha in it so it should be sweet enough for you." He took it from her without a word and she brushed past him to get to the kitchen counter. Dick was still in his sleep pants and his hair was hilarious. Steph hoped she could sneak a picture to send to Wendy, she still didn't believe that Dick could ever look bad. Over breakfast they watched videos of tightrope performances and brainstormed some more ideas for Steph's new act.

Steph had a knack for the tightrope. If her life was a story and she'd had to analyze it for class, Steph would say it was very appropriate given her history and how she tried to balance aspects of her life. There would probably be something about how she choose to leave safety for the thrill and a kind of playful perfectionist streak, because something in her needed to dance, but that was getting into three am rushed final paper territory and she wasn't that dedicated a lit student (eventually she'd get that midterm paper on Lady Gaga done). In reality, and it pained Steph to think about how they'd missed this when Dick had pointed out an undercover circus performer might be the easiest way to get extended access to the casino's paper records, Steph just had an athletic background and physicality suited to tightwire. It hadn't taken much to adjust to the much narrower width of the wire compared to a balance beam and once she'd figured out how to go into and get out of a split on the cable it all started coming together.

Mid-afternoon found Steph walking backwards on a low wire reciting job titles and key biographical data as Dick listed names of Cirque employees. "-Matheson is part of finance. Not payroll, that's Janice Weekes and her assistant, the German guy. The rest of finance have stupid titles that all sound the same and mean nothing, it's just the head of accounting and the managing director, Gerard Asher, who have pull with company finances and the non-artistic parts of the show budget which has to be where our suspect's embezzling from."

"Unless it's someone working within the casino," Damian said loudly and Steph startled and fell off her wire.

"Gah! Where did you come from? Dick, can you put a bell on him or something?"

Damian just glared at her and walked over to where Dick was perched on the back of a ratty couch. He was wearing a hoodie and looking more sullen than usual.

"No seriously, where did you come from? I didn't even hear you come in," Steph said.

"This is exactly why Father should take your uniform away, you're a disgrace to us all," Damian informed her. "I don't understand why he gave you such an important job when Grayson is much better suited to this."

Steph desperately wanted to throw something at Damian but he'd probably just catch it and ridicule her even more. Stupid assassin ninja bats and their freaky abilities. She settled for sticking her tongue out at him and ignoring him for her tightrope. She had work to do.

"Damian, be nice," Dick chided. "Steph's busy and has a lot to finalize before her audition. She doesn't need you making fun of her."

"Tt, she'll be lucky if she can walk on that rope," Damian scoffed. "She should be spending more time figuring out how to distract the circus from her inadequacies and less time reciting names like they'll make a difference in how Father and I solve this case."

"Damian," Dick said warningly.

"No, go ahead and keep on insulting me to my face," Steph said sweetly. "I don't care what you think and it's obviously helping you cope with your issues, you wouldn't be here if you weren't having problems with Bruce." Damian sputtered and Steph didn't say anything. She had her issues with the littlest batboy but at some point she'd realized that most of the things he mercilessly ridiculed her about had to do with competence and fitting in with the family and yeah, those hit her hard but also revealed a lot about Damian's own issues. She couldn't hate the kid. Hopefully Dick would sort his head out and he'd _leave_ and she could go back to drilling employees with Dick and figuring out how to do more that two jumps in a row on her rope.

"Everything is fine with Father," Damian said frostily. "He's closing in on some of the last mob connections with Drake and Barbara's Birds tonight. We're going to force Luthor's partner at the casino to launder his money with someone we choose and then we will end this affair and stop cleaning up Metropolis' problems."

Dick pulled Damian in for a not-hug, since even Steph knew Damian didn't go for hugs. He was kind of like a cat in the respect (actually, in a lot of respects. Steph was pretty sure he'd get along really well with Catwoman if they ever met on good terms). "Bruce'll be back in Gotham pretty soon," he said. "It's been good for him and Tim to work together on the Luthor side of this, but you know his heart's in Gotham and he's looking forward to working with you again."

Damian didn't say anything, but as Steph practiced kicking her leg out for what she was calling a fancy arabesque-y turn that probably had a real name somewhere, Damian did seem to radiate less agitation the longer he sat watching her with Dick. It was a bit of a leap to ascribe that much emotional forethought and consideration to Bruce but somewhere in his special Batbrain he probably had been thinking something along the lines of father-son bonding and not just the Mission. Well. Dick was capable of crediting Bruce with that and Damian needed to hear it.

"So," she said brightly. "Let's talk costumes guys. I'm gonna weight Damian's suggestions over yours Dick because I've seen photos of the first Nightwing suit and no, I don't care if you're circus. You're _nineties_ circus and I'm all for sparkles but not into the clashing colors."

"Hey!" Dick said. "I'm very stylish and the expert on the business, you should be taking notes and listening to my advice. You want to be eye-catching!"

"No, Brown is right," Damian said. "For once. She doesn't have the complexion or the assets to pull off your eye-searing costume ideas."

***

"All right team," Proxy said. "Let's go over the plan one more time before BG has to get into costume."

"How about no?" Steph said. "At this point we have gone over it so many times and everyone has tweaked it, that there's no way we don't know what it is and we know it's going to change as soon as we id our sleazebag crook."

"Batgirl has a point," Robin said stiffly. Steph beamed because that was twice within almost as many days that Damian had agreed with her. "We're in position, Oracle's already told us the meeting with the GeneCo rep ran late but everything's set and as you like to point out Proxy, comms aren't as secure as we'd like-"

"Hey D," Dick interrupted. "Did you want Zesti or Soder? I'm almost at concessions."

Steph snickered because Dick's timing was, as always, perfection. Damian was getting just a little too self-important there and it was nice to hear him sputter and act like his dignity had been attacked or something and he had to defend it because somehow, Batgirl and Proxy didn't know he was a preteen. Damian's brain was a strange, strange place. Steph nodded to one of her new cast mates, one of the Russian bar trio, as she lazily made her way to the dressing room she shared with a few of the show's aerialists. Dick's experiences with Haly's Circus was pretty much nothing like a full-scale Cirque du Lune show, he'd been surprised the first time she'd brought him backstage after a rehearsal. It was one thing to read reports and know the show had dozens of full-time crew members and nearly a hundred cast members, it was another to see a performance space designed specifically for a permanent one-ring circus and all of the _stuff_ that supported a show. So far Steph's carefully fabricated background as a gymnast turned touring circus performer was holding up and if tonight went well they wouldn't have to worry about it holding up for much longer. Though, if she could keep the cover identity and the job that'd be awesome. It was a lot of fun and way better money than her lab monitor job at the university.

Steph shifted the phone she had out in an attempt to look like a completely sane, functional person who didn't talk to invisible people. She nodded to performers she recognized and grinned as she listened to Dick and Wendy debate which flavor of Circus Peanuts was the best (Steph thought any marshmallow candy that wasn't a Peep was gross, but Wendy was making a pretty good case for the orange flavor) and Damian sputtered on about professionalism and how Dick better not buy any of those abominations. Steph interrupted them when she got to her dressing room. "I've got to go, duty calls and the show must go on and the rest of those cliches. I'll call you later, leave a message if anything interesting happens."

"10-4 Batgirl," Wendy said. "It is 10-4, right? Nightwing, you were a cop, I'm using the right lingo, yeah?"

Steph turned her comm off. She wanted to get her makeup done and into her costume before she had to split her attention between radio Batgirl and pre-show crazy. If anything interesting happened Wendy would override and let her know. They'd timed the plan pretty well in her opinion. Barbara had needed a few days to get Gotham's fences and shadier business owners talking about her alias enough that someone desperate to channel some money would use her and Dick and Steph had both been adamant that she needed a few shows to go normally before they set the sting. When a stage hand popped in to announce it was fifteen until curtain Steph turned her comm back on. Wendy confirmed Barbara had arrived and had her contact so all they had to do was make it to intermission when Wendy would get the bank routing numbers and Dick could arrest whoever was embezzling, which would shut GeneCo down. It was possible that Bruce and Tim were going to be able to pin something on Luthor's shell company and Steph was really hoping they'd pull it off but they were pragmatists. Getting GeneCo shut down for fraud _would_ stop Luthor's current plan.

The show started without a hitch. Steph had a small part in the opening sequence, she was one of the siren-like figures beckoning the dreamer into the fantastical world of Elysium. It was fun to play the coquette opposite the intrepid dreamer for a few minutes. Maybe he was a hero? She hadn't actually paid that much attention to the show's storyline, the only important part was figuring out which acts she could fake and then nailing the audition for mid-season replacements. Whoever the lead was, she got to slink around him and use her oversized balance fan to pantomime flirting outrageously with him.

"And that's a wrap for my Catwoman impression," she said quietly as the music swelled for the scene change. "I've got about thirty-seven minutes until I'm on again, then it'll be ten minutes after that until intermission."

"Gotcha," Proxy said. "Have fun chilling backstage."

***

Steph sort of had the rhythm of the show down by now and this wasn't her first sting operation (the first had been a favor to Detective Gage and involved far too many glow sticks, he still owed her coffee for that). She chatted with performers and stayed loose, peaking in on a few acts because it still amazed her how talented all the performers were. She was ready when the first note of her music came on and danced around the dreamer, bopping him on the nose and leading him up the platforms in a chase until the lights came up and revealed her tightwire. The act was a playful back and forth with her character trying to lure him out onto the wire to dance until they both gave up and he just watched her. Most incarnations of this act had been straightforward tightrope balance stuff with poles and such, which was pretty cool in its own right and about a year ago one of the performers had specialized in working with props on a wire so there'd been chair balancing and some juggling. Steph hadn't gone that route at all. She, quite literally, danced on the wire. She wasn't the first wire walker to do it but she was the first for this show. That was kind of awesome and she beamed as she performed, enthralling the audience and even keeping her co-star's attention.

Steph was still beaming as she got backstage and got a high five from a stage hand and accepted praise from a few performers. Almost a week into her performance and a few things about Dick made a little more sense. When she got free of everyone, Steph got on the comm again.

"So how awesome was I?" she asked. "You can tell me, I was a lot awesome, I know, but it's nice to hear it."

"You were awesome," Oracle said. "Can you be awesome somewhere you can keep an eye on the crowd? We're looking for people who are impatient for intermission."

"Sure," Steph said. "I can get up into the catwalk. I'll let you know if I spot someone."

It was a pretty full house for a mid-week show. Most of the front rows were empty, though she did spot some people who'd clearly bought half price rush seats and there were a handful in the cheaper, obstructed seats. No one looked too impatient for intermission except for a black woman around the seventh row, but that was probably because her preteen daughter was moving around a lot following the performers. Steph smiled as she watched the girl gasp at whatever the acrobats just did. It was nice to see someone appreciate the show so much (and Steph had to approve of her Batgirl hoodie on principle).

"I can't see much in detail past about the fifteenth row," Steph said quietly.

"We've got a middle-aged guy in a suit who's pretty anxious two rows in front of us," Dick said. "D's slipped out to watch the right exit, I'm on left as soon as the last act ends. We're ready even it if isn't him."

Steph sat patiently as act one ended and people got up for intermission. She could hear Wendy doing something with her keyboard over the comm, probably rapidly shifting between security cameras. Damian confirmed that their suspect hadn't come through his door and Proxy announced that everyone was in place.

"Incoming," Barbara said and the comm went silent while she greeted the mark. Pleasantries exchanged, he started talking about how business was bad in this economy and Barbara made sympathetic noises and they exchanged codewords. It was all very spy novel, which amused Steph. This guy was clearly an amateur, which explained why the casino had been linked to Luthor _and_ why it'd been so hard to get solid evidence. Poorly disguised deposits and an over reliance on physical copies of things. His voice was pleasant and weirdly familiar, which was driving her nuts. "I swear I've heard him before," Steph said quietly just Damian made a noise like an outraged cat.

"No no no no no no," Proxy said. "No, no dead drops, I can't hack analog, no, Babs turn this around we need a wire transfer. I can't hack paper copies and cold hard cash!"

"She can't break character," Dick said. "D, we've got to intervene and stall somehow-"

"What's he look like?" Steph demanded. She'd only met a few people working directly for the casino but she'd met most of the top Cirque suspects. "I might be able to-"

"Tall, balding red hair, grey eyes, dressed in a decent suit from several seasons ago," Damian said promptly. "Slight French accent-"

"Gerard Asher," Steph said. "Managing director. Dick, introduce yourself and talk about how much like the show and promoting the circus arts. Offer to create a scholarship for the Cirque Ecole, it's his pet cause and it'll stall him long enough for O to fast talk him into a wire transfer."

Steph listened with rapt attention and Dick and Barbara seamlessly played Asher. He agreed to the transfer in a rush and Wendy crowed when she got the account numbers. 

"Oh yeah, go team Batgirl. Gage's contact in white collar has everything and I just sent a copy to Lois Lane so there's no way this is going to be buried." Wendy said with an almost disturbing amount of glee in her voice. "Ladies and gentlemen we have just saved one of the few circuses left in the world from an embezzling jackass and killed one of Lex Luthor's schemes, we are amazing."

Steph opened her mouth to compliment the team when the lights in the auditorium flickered three times.

"Intermission's over," she announced. "Let the GCPD arrest him, I've got a show to finish."

***

Steph never did manage to complete a five minute aerial silk routine without getting hopelessly tangled or falling, but she did eventually get her Lady Gaga paper written at Dick's kitchen table and she got rave reviews for her brief and glorious tightrope career with the Cirque du Lune. That wasn't her most stressful midterms ever, but it was probably the most educational. And the video of her first wire walk in downtown Gotham got way more Youtube hits than anything Damian did as Robin and that was nearly as great a win as solving the Case of the Mysteriously Embezzled Cash Funding Lex Luthor's Latest Plot To Get Superpowers. 


End file.
